Benjamin Franklin and the Economy of the Colonies - Essay Example

Name Name of Professor Benjamin Franklin and the Economy of the Colonies Benjamin Franklin, condemning the return of Canada to France, stressed that the obsession of the French fur trade was a fortunate thing for English producers and the main motive of Britain to wage war against France…

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Reacting to the advocates of the Stamp Act who claimed that the Seven Years War had been waged to the detriment of Britain to protect the interests of Native Americans, Franklin referred once again to the fur trade subject: “The last war was begun, not ‘for the immediate protection’ of all Americans, but for the protection of British trade, carried on with British manufactures among the Indians in America” (Greene 1995, 261). Franklin also commented on the dispatching of Braddock’s army by the Crown to America as a way to safeguard British trade and that the “trade with the Indians, though carried on in America, is not an American interest” (Greene 1995, 261). The war had been waged to create new markets for English producers and traders, and, as argued by Franklin, should justly shoulder the burden of maintaining the army (Isaacson 2003) that at the time inhabited the colonized lands. Economic Structure of the Colonies In a working colonial economy, the capitalist interconnectedness of the colonies and the mother country generally resulted in a colonial imbalance of trade. The colonies pay for the products of the mother country and are pushed to produce those unprocessed materials needed by the colonial capitalists. In this process they are backed up by the new capital and investment of the balances of the mother country (Beer 1958). Hence, in the southern settlements, tobacco mostly was being generated to supply revenues for the British products the plantation owners needed; yet, since the trade left the British with a positive balance, its capitalists had by the 1770s at least ?4,000,000 spent in southern planting activities (Wahlke 1962, 1). To pay for the fees on these arrears, according to Wahlke (1962), southern planters were forced to continuously broaden their agricultural activities and to take part in the secondary operations of the fur trade and land assessment. Evidently, the northern colonies were a source for iron, whale products, furs, and lumber, and these Britain greatly required sustaining her autonomy of European supplies. Through payments, the loosening of trade limitations and the rewarding of preferred places in the main market, Britain tried to persuade these businesses, in part because it needed these materials and in part to deflect northern capital from reaching into manufacturing, shipping, and shipbuilding (Greene 1995). Yet, the policy was a failure. The northern colonies were purchasing more and more volumes of British products and services, and were hence heavy debtors in the direct trade (Greene 1995). Obviously, these economic systems only benefited the British capitalists and merchants in terms of favorable balances. The colonies in turn were increasingly buried in debt. In the system of mercantilism, colonies were obliged to support the mother country in gaining an export surplus, economic independence, and favorable balance of trade. Colonies were obliged to provide supplies which would otherwise have to be acquired from non-colonial reservoirs, produce exports by the manufacture and trade of goods in high demand in other markets, and supply a market for the exports of the mother country (Greene 1995). In return, the mother country would furnish the settlements with military protection, and centralized regulation of the economy. But mercantilism was ‘not an American interest’
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He never ceases to be the perfect illustration and the embodiment of the true virtues that informed the American enlightenment and would in time culminate to the American independence. Benjamin Franklin was born in Massachusetts, New England in 1706 to Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger, his second wife.

He undertook experiments with electricity, inventing the lighting rod and the Franklins stove (Stuber 1790). His theme of self-improvement can be traced back to his childhood, where his schooling happened to come at a halt at the age of ten, and by the age of twelve, he had become a trainee to his brother who was a printer, publishing the “New England Courant.” He advanced much in this field and at some point rose to the rank of the editor of that journal.

To start with, despite ending his education at a very tender age of ten years, Franklin had a hope to develop and become successful in his life. At the age of twelve, Franklin contributed to his brother’s journal on “New England Courant” (Charles, 1909).

There are sometimes people out of time, men that should have been born in another era, that have skills or knowledge that are out of whack with when they live. Tesla, for instance, probably would be more at home today than he was in his own era, and likewise, Alan Turing’s thoughts and ideas were distinctly twenty-first, not the twentieth century.

No authors have been mentioned for the first two websites while the third one has been authored by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich. The first website is a part of the site namely, ushistory.org and the second one has been taken from Encyclopedia

In an examination of the factors that justify the cultural processes as the explanations for revolt, it is notable that the American provincialism which has been of significant instrument of the national and

in Franklin, in his address Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America, argued that people of the so-called civilized world greatly misunderstood other cultures, especially those that exist within the confines of the wilderness like Native Americans. It is a common belief

Franklin was born on the 17th of January, in the year 1706, in Boston Massachusetts Bay Colony. Josiah Franklin, Benjamin’s father was a soap and candle maker, he had two wives and 17 children. Benjamin was

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